About USC Gould

USC Gould is a top-ranked law school with a 115-year history and reputation for academic excellence. We are located on the beautiful 228-acre USC University Park Campus, just south of downtown Los Angeles.

Careers

We work closely with students, graduates and employers to support successful career goals and outcomes. Our overall placement rate is consistently strong, with 94 percent of our JD class employed within 10 months after graduation.

Earning a certificate in Business Law in addition to your JD degree helps you acquire the diverse legal, business and negotiating skills required to succeed in business law practice. It also offers you a credential that demonstrates your specialized training in this thriving and wide-ranging field.

You may concurrently earn multiple certificates offered by USC Gould. Some courses count toward more than one certificate. Students in the JD/MBA dual-degree are also eligible.

Certificate Requirements

To earn the certificate, you must take at least 24 units of mandatory courses, core electives and specialized electives, including:

10-11 units from the Mandatory Courses

5 units from the Core Electives

4 units from one or more courses listed under Specialized Electives - Transactional Skills or Legal Clinics, Externships or Publications

The remaining unit requirements may be satisfied from any of the courses listed below

No more than 6 units counted toward the certificate may be taken CR/D/F.

The mandatory courses are the foundation of any business, corporate or tax law practice. The core electives provide a foundation for achieving more specialized knowledge within selected practice areas in business, corporate and tax law. Specialized electives consist of a mix of substantive lecture-style courses and transactional skills courses on narrower topics. You may personalize your course selections to achieve specialization within a selected field or to acquire broad knowledge of multiple fields within business law.

Courses that qualify for the certificate include specialized electives offered through the USC Marshall School of Business that enable law students to study and engage with business students who could one day be their future clients.

Mandatory Courses

Business Organizations

Taxation

Fundamental Business Principles (formerly Business Literacy) or Business for Lawyers*

*This mandatory course requirement may be waived by providing evidence of equivalent course work outside of the law school, subject to approval by the Director of the Business Law Certificate Program. Any such waiver will not reduce the total units required for the certificate.

Core Electives (at least 5 units required)

Accounting for Lawyers

Bankruptcy: Debtors and Creditors (formerly called Bankruptcy Law)

Corporate Finance

Corporate Taxation

Mergers and Acquisitions

Partnership Taxation

Securities Regulation

Specialized Electives: Substantive Law

Analytical Methods (formerly called Analytical Methods for Lawyers)

Antitrust Law

Commercial Paper

Corporate Reorganization

Counseling the Startup

Entertainment Law

Insurance (formerly called Insurance Law)

International Business Transactions

International Sales of Goods

Land-Use Controls

Law and Economics

Partnerships and LLCs

Sales

Secured Transactions

Venture Capital Law and Emerging Companies (formerly called Venture Capital Law and Finance)

Specialized Electives: Transactional Skills (Corporate)

Advanced Contracts

Advanced Legal Writing for International Business Lawyers

Advanced Secured Transactions Workshop

Alternative Dispute Resolution Clause Drafting

Business Planning (formerly called Business Planning I: Structuring and Financing the New Enterprise)

Specialized Electives: Transactional Skills (Media and Technology)

Dealmaking in the Entertainment Industry (formerly called Topics in Entertainment Law: Deal Making in the Entertainment Industry)

Topics in Entertainment Law: Legal and Business Issues in the Digital Age

Legal Clinics, Externships or Publications

Small Business Clinic I

Small Business Clinic II

Corporate Practicum

Entertainment Law Practicum

Business Law Advisor

Specialized Electives: USC Marshall School of Business

Corporate Financial Strategy

Corporate Financial Policy and Corporate Governance

Entrepreneurial Finance: Financial Management for Developing Firms

Mergers and Acquisitions

Financial Analysis and Valuation

Not all courses are offered every year.

You may petition to waive any required or elective course if you have taken an equivalent course outside of the law school as part of your undergraduate or other graduate degree.

The Business Law certificate gives you a good roadmap outlining both substantive and hands-on classes. I took a mix of both. The hands-on classes gave me a great perspective on how the substantive law would apply in real-world situations.